janet biggs, painting and marionette theatre
Lily Girl, 1997
Oil on canvas, 176cm x 125cm
DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS
Over the past year Janet has been deeply involved with drawing from the life model working at the Royal College of Art, London, and is presently researching methods and meaning in 15th century painting, with particular reference to concepts about allegory, for her Masters Degree.
John Phillips, former Director of Studies, School of Art and Art Therapies, University of Hertfordshire, writes:
Her freely drawn imagery evokes unconscious visions that can be re-interpreted by the spectator. Her drawings and paintings are richly ambiguous in the references that they present and are without obvious historical precedent. The pictorial surface is often built with a succession of layers of marks and colour to create a hardwon totality that is the result of a unique intuitive process which is hers alone.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Janet will be exhibiting paintings and drawings at an exhibition at the Helferhaus in Bachnang, Germany in September/October 1997. They reflect a development in her work from mostly landscape towards figures and faces:
Although the subject is extremely important, each painting is a process of discovery that can extend over weeks or months. On the other hand sometimes the imagery seems to have been formed in my mind's eye and needs only to be 'written down' in paint at a single session.
PUPPET THEATRE
Janet Biggs became interested in puppet
theatre after her involvement with John Phillip's production of The
Temptation of St. Anthony at Covent Garden in 1988. Since then she has
designed and painted backcloths for his productions, designed and
constructed shadow puppets in the style of 16th century chapbook drawings
for the new musical about the life of the English painter William Hogarth.
This resulted in several performances in the Great Hall of Bart's
Hospital, London.
In June, 1997, the Shorland Yarn (a 'play
within the play' of Hogarth) was performed with the shadow puppets
at the Bridewell Theatre, Fleet Street, London.
EXHIBITIONS
Janet Biggs has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions around Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and London. She has also exhibited her work in exhibitions in New Mexico, USA and Bachnang, Germany.
Janet Biggs
Address: The Old Rectory, St.
Andrew Street, Hertford,
SG14 1HZ, UK.
Telephone: +44 (0)1992 583427
